HyperX ships it’s 60 millionth enthusiast memory module

This one really brought back some memories

Kingston is celebrating 16 years in gaming with it’s HyperX brand and a total of 60 million modules sold. SemiAccurate doesn’t normally care about such milestones but who can forget the first blue HyperX modules, they changed things.

Before writing this story I went to my under construction office and looked for the blue HyperX DIMMs I have from that time period, 2002, to take a picture of. I didn’t find them but I did find a 100MB floppy and a Jaz drive, sans disks, but the box of obsolete memory is still hidden somewhere. That said I know I have a few of these somewhere.

Brings back memories don’t they?

Why are these HyperX modules so important? They were one of the first mainstream brands to make overclocked, enthusiast oriented parts with consistent high quality. Essentially they were Kingston memory binned to higher standard than normal, and they had a heat spreader backed by actual engineering, something that many brands still lack to this day. On top of that Kingston made distinctive industrial design choices and supported the broader enthusiast community before either was cool.

The specs on the first HyperX device, a kit of two DDR1 370MHz modules at a massive 256MB each, wouldn’t pass muster in a modern cell phone. Back then however they were blazing fast and more importantly, reliable. HyperX modules are now 64x as large, 256MB to 16GB, 12x as fast, 333MHz to 4133MHz, and cost 1/38th as much per GB, $37.66 to $0.98.

Since those first parts HyperX has branched out into a lot of memory niches from low cost gamer/enthusiast to high performance, enthusiast flash, keyboards, headsets, and much more. The new stuff may not be the same shade of blue that really did change things 16 years ago but several of the people I know from the company at that time are still there and still keeping the enthusiast flame lit. And now HyperX has sold it’s 60 millionth enthusiast module. If the average over that time frame is only 1GB per module, that is 60 Petabytes of enthusiast memory shifted in 18 years. Very few others are in the same ballpark, this milestone did bring back some memories.S|A

Authors Note: I just looked through my travel bag to dig out my HyperX gear for pictures. Of the ~10 flash drives I have in it, three are Kingston but none are HyperX. I feel so guilty after writing the above and not having a single one that I am going to go out and buy one tomorrow. And dig out the DIMMs from the construction zone that is my office. When I get back from the two work trips I am taking in the next two weeks.

Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also a council member with Gerson Lehman Group. FullyAccurate

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Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and S|A. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, security and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture.

As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also a council member with Gerson Lehman Group.

Thomas Ryan is a freelance technology writer and photographer from Seattle, living in Austin. You can find his work on SemiAccurate and PCWorld. He has a BA in Geography from the University of Washington with a minor in Urban Design and Planning and specializes in geospatial data science. If you have a hardware performance question or an interesting data set Thomas has you covered.